Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Abort, Retry, Fail?

It seems many people started using computers only after Windows 95 had come in, and don't have any clue as to what the earlier OS (the ubiquitous MSDOS) was like. I had started out using Windows 3.1 which had to be run as an executable file - C:\WINDOWS win [enter]. While working on MSDOS, often the drives couldn't detect media (e.g. floppy drives) and the following message would appear: Ab0rt, Retry, Fail?

What you then did, and which option you chose has an interesting correlation to what sort of a person you are, and how you would react during relationship crises!

If you were the "this is done - let's move and look for something else" kind, you would say "Fail", and then go and try to look for something else which would run the application. In relationships, these are people who can rebound from one to another quickly, without any emotional baggage.

If you were the "I'm done for - this the end of everything" kind, you would press "Abort" and get out of the mess. Such people aren't able to take heartbreaks easily and take a lot of time to come out of the hangover.

Lastly, if you are the "main fight maarunga" kind you would press "Retry" again and again, and despite knowing that most likely nothing in the system has changed and the probability of the thing working after a retry is minuscule, you would keep on retrying. The analogy is pretty clear and doesn't need an explanation.

Now, yours truly considers himself a fighter, and it is pretty clear what my attempts during relationships have been. There are times, however, when the realization sets in that enough is enough, probably pressing 'R' again and again is just going to hurt your fingers; and however much you might wish that the drive works; you realize that some drive and media are just not meant to be mutually readable.

After several retries during five years (and three junctions in life); it is finally time to say "Fail", and as much as a failure hurts you, it is sometimes the only thing to do to avoid a system crash.